Mark Twain, Sir Walter Scott, and Wordy Books

[riky]

Mark Twain, Sir Walter Scott, and Wordy Books
      

Mark Twain was famously hard on Sir Walter Scott.

Twain was not a Romantic, which is one of the chief reasons that he is funny and wise and still read. He lived through the tumultuous period leading up to the Civil War and the war itself, and consequently he had the benefit of first-hand observation and intelligent reflection to arrive at certain conclusions regarding the culture of the antebellum South. He found it meretricious, and he blamed the author of Ivanhoe and the Waverley novels.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: The works mentioned in this essay, while quite good, are hereby certified not to be Great Books. They may therefore be read safely, in the confidence that the reader will not be subjected to the sneers of critics who are not quite certain of their superiority.



         

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